CARAGA REGION, October 16, 2023 – Building a pool of trainers to develop and deliver effective training materials that meet the learning needs of the Program beneficiaries, the Department of Agriculture – Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Program Caraga Region conducted a Values Formation Training Workshop among 17 staff on October 10, 2023, at DA Regional Office, Butuan City.

The activity covered understanding values and their importance, identifying personal and organizational values, and correlating personal and organizational values with complementary workshops to reinforce the lessons and trainers’ notes to practice facilitation. 

Resource Person Edson B. Alijo, Information Officer III of the Commission on Human Rights – Caraga, emphasized the importance of establishing organizational values that emanate from the farmers and align with their vision, mission, and goals. He added that the Program staff should allow farmers to lead and decide by themselves to promote participatory discussion in developing organizational values.

DA Regional Technical Director (RTD) for Operations Rebecca R. Atega, in her message, encouraged the staff to bear in mind the objective of the training, which is to help the farmers’ associations develop their own organizational values that are reflective of their nature and also align with the goal of the Program to establish a sustainable community-based enterprise (CBEs).

As the last part of the training, the staff drafted a training design, specifying the objectives, topics, and workshops for the Program’s 28 assisted farmers’ associations

The drafted training design will be finalized and submitted for approval in November to be utilized for rollout of the same training by the second quarter of 2024.  The trained staff are also expected to lead the facilitation of the said training. 

Values Formation Training is among the essential capability-building activities of the Program to guide assisted FAs to establish organizational values as their anchor in managing their projects. In September, the Program also conducted a training workshop in Financial Literacy for roll out next year to supplement FA’s knowledge and skills regarding financial management since most are already selling and marketing their produce.  

Writer: Mark Angelo C. Pineda, DA-SAAD Caraga Information Officer